50 Regional Sodas to Try Before You Die

These days, in the age of Big Gulp ubiquity, sugary drinks have gotten a bad rap, lumped together with cigarettes and Whoppers and all the other stuff that’s supposed to be killing us. But soda has a much more quaint and parochial history in this country than its current image would suggest.

Many old-school sodas, like Moxie, were oriented toward health and sold at pharmacies as nerve tonics and herbal remedies. In the earlier half of the 20th century, soda fountains at ice-cream parlors, department stores, and elsewhere were a social institution, providing a place for communities to gather and exchange ideas. And during Prohibition, scores of breweries stayed afloat by turning their attention to soft drinks, spawning a golden age of great American sodas.

These days, old brands that have survived—or been resurrected by nostalgic entrepreneurs—are irresistible examples of Americana, rife with goofy branding and small-town charm. Even the names people use for fizzy drinks—soda, pop, tonic—speak to their regionalism. Meanwhile, new-school sodamakers are pushing the tradition forward, tweaking recipes and seeking to provide an alternative to the homogeneity of the standard vending-machine lineup.

Long story short, we love soda and think it deserves to be celebrated. Over the past few months, our tasting panel has sampled well over 150 sodas from all across the country (and one that snuck in from Canada, cheeky bastard). Some were truly excellent—crisp and clean, with just the right kiss of pure cane-sugar sweetness. Others were unspeakably awful, tasting of everything from Robitussin to burnt hair and bacon. But what emerged over the course of the panel was one undeniable fact: Drinking soda is as fun as hell.

Here, we present the 50 regional sodas that we think every American ought to try before kicking the bucket, as well as our tasting notes on each. Let the sugar high commence.

TASTING NOTES

CS: The bubbles are pretty good and the honey really gives it a lingering kiss of sweetness. It’s kind of cheating though, no? Using honey in a root beer is like tossing a bunch of crazy ingredients into an IPA—at a certain point it’s not really an IPA anymore, they’ve done so much to it. Regardless, I give this top ratings. The honey is definitely clean and not cloyingly sweet.
NS: I like a well-carbonated root beer like this; otherwise it is like drinking a slick, sweet water. I give this ratings, too.
HN: The color is different than I would expect. It is like the sweat tea of root beer.

Dang! That’s Good Butterscotch Root Beer

TASTING NOTES

CS: Too sweet, too much like a Worther’s Original. You could never drink a whole one of these and not regret it.
NS: I like when the title is actually a phrase. Grandfathers who have lost touch with their grandsons reconcile with this soda. That said, I never want to drink this again.
HN: It’s sort of like drinking liquid cotton candy

Triple XXX Root Beer

VITALSType of soda: Root beer
Hometown: Galveston, TX
Founded: 1918
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: The brand has a long, storied past in Texas, and is now sold from a diner of the same name in West Lafayette, Indiana.

TASTING NOTES

CS: The bottle looks like it's been around from the ’50s. It’s rather sweet, with an incredibly thin finish. Its tagline is ‘Make thirst a joy,’ which is true in that you would rather be thirsty than drink it. Not very good.
NS: It has a nice vintage look. It’s a smooth soda, but there’s no bite to it. It’s like sugar water. This is not one of the finest root beers I’ve ever had.

Tower Root Beer

TASTING NOTES

CS: This one smells like anise. It has a nice sparkling quality, which makes up for the fact that it is not that flavorful. It’s watery, but not sugary.
NS: This one has more of a traditional root aroma. It also has more carbonation to it than a lot of the other root beers. By comparison to Triple XXX, it has a better nose, but both are super smooth with no aftertaste.

Genuine Hank’s Gourmet Root Beer

VITALS
Type of soda: Root beer
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Founded: 2006
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: A Philadelphia-based company that has been in the soda business for over 40 years.

TASTING NOTES

CS: This one has the fat, lazy bubbles that I like. Real American bubbles. But it’s more a cream soda in the guise of a root beer.
NS: This is the best of American mass production. I think this is one of the best mass-market root beers. Caffeine free, but sugar high.

Filbert's Old Time Draft Root Beer

VITALS
Type of soda: Root beer
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Founded: 1926
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: Charlie Filbert began making draft root beer soda during the height of Prohibition. The same recipe is being made today by the fourth generation of Filberts.

TASTING NOTES

CS: This is interesting. This one almost has a chocolaty flavor to it. It tastes like Hershey’s cocoa—despite being artificial, it’s a flavor everyone knows and loves.
NS: This is delicious. This is for drinking pies and such. It would be excellent for a float.

TASTING NOTES

Foster Kamer(who wandered into the tasting, as if by providence, to drop knowledge about New Orleans): People in New Orleans know what they are doing with root beer. Filé, which is the spice powder used to make gumbo, smells like root beer because it’s got sassafras leaves in it. Sassafras is in the blood down there.
CS: This is the crispest root beer I’ve had. Also the cleanest. It has the most clarity in taste, and is not overly sugary.

Baumeister Root Beer

VITALS
Type of soda: Root beer
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Founded: 1907
Type of sweetener: High fructose and/or sugar
Factoid: "In 1907, Heine Baumeister tapped into an artesian well to ensure the purest of water quality, and began producing several brands of sodas that he proudly put his name on. These sodas became long time favorites and part of a Wisconsin tradition."

TASTING NOTES

CS: Smells very much like wintergreen mint. There is a base sweet note to a lot of sodas made with corn syrup, and this definitely has that.
NS: I don’t fuck with this soda. There is also a lot of caramel.
HN: Lots of foam happening on this one. It’s got a weird Bazooka Joe thing going on. The sugar coats your mouth.

III Dachsunds Old Fashion Root Beer

VITALS
Type of soda: Root beer
Hometown: Oak Creek, WI
Founded:
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: This small Wisconsin beer company takes its name from three dachshunds puppies Lillie, Otto, and Sophie.

TASTING NOTES

CS: Thin but with good bubbles. Like beers, sodas with dogs on the label get extra points. But when you come from Wisconsin, the stakes are higher—it is the heartland of good soda making. This root beer is middling in that context.
NS: Has a good nose to it, though.
HN: It smells piney, like sap. Solid middle of the road root beer.

Maine Root Beer

TASTING NOTES

CS: It smells super clovey, with lots of Christmas spices. It actually claims on the bottle to have spices in it, but they don’t tell you what they are. It takes gumption to be a new-school root beer company, but this one brings something worthwhile to the table.
NS: This has one of the strongest noses of any root beer. You really know you are drinking a root beer, but it also has the mouthfeel of a really good ginger beer. If I was having a lamb chop and I had to have a soda, this would be it.
CS: What a ridiculous scenario to imagine. But I agree.
RS: This is real earthy. It tastes like root beer candy, if you’re ready to graduate from Dum Dums.

Goose Island Vanilla Cream Soda

TASTING NOTES

CS: It’s making me think of the custard-style yogurt from Yoplait that I used to eat in high school—that very specific mass-produced vanilla bean flavor. Props though: This is a brewery that actually came through with its cream soda. The only draw back is that the clear bottle makes it look like a bottle of urine.
NS: That is really good cream soda
HN: That is the way cream soda should taste. By the way—you were into yogurt in high school?

Squamscot Old Fashioned Cream Soda

VITALS
Type of soda: Cream soda
Hometown: New Fields, NH
Founded: 1863
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: Squamscot is the last independent bottler in the state of New Hampshire.

TASTING NOTES

CS: The color is really off putting. It’s like one part Coke, four parts water.
NS: This is Bill Bryson’s favorite soda. [Fact.]
HN: It tastes like when you actually drink vanilla extract. Just based upon the label, I wanted it to be really good soda.
RS: This smells likes really cheap vanilla extract. I hate this.

TASTING NOTES

CS: This is really good. It's really smooth. I also appreciate that the bottle says that this soda is good for just “nutzing around.” Very aggressive bubbles can cover up imperfection…I think there may be a little of that going on with this one.

Caruso’s Legacy Gourmet Black Cherry Soda

TASTING NOTES

CS: It has a faint smell of Robitussin. What I like about it, though, is that it is very mildly sweet. I feel like it would be good to drink with food without killing your palate with sugar. But it suffers from the weak bubble. Pour this on crush ice and it would be bomb.
NS: Oh, I like this. I like black cherry sodas. It’s like the ultimate pastrami sandwich soda, or steak-and-cheese.
HN: I’m reminded of melted snow cones.

Cheerwine

TASTING NOTES

CS: This represents the pinnacle of what’s possible for high fructose corn syrup sodas.
NS: Cheerwine is fucking excellent.
HN: This makes me want to eat a chili cheese dog at Zack’s Hot Dogs [in Burlington, NC]. This is one of the things that I am truly proud of that North Carolina has produced.

TASTING NOTES

CS: It has very vibrant fizz when you open it. Aggressive bubbles. Smells weird, like chemicals. The taste is like if Ocean Spray made a black cherry soda. It is a fail for a soda to have that off-putting of an aroma.
NS: Black cherry needs to be more cleansing. That’s why you drink it with a heavy or spicy sandwich.
HN: I don’t mind it, but it doesn't taste like black cherry. If there was a different name, I think I would be into it.

Capone Family Secret Black Cherry

VITALS
Type of soda: Black cherry
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Founded: 1964
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: In the 137 police raids of Frank Capone's warehouses during Prohibition officers only found soda. This is the recipe for those beverages reimagined.

TASTING NOTES

NS: Oh, this is the worst soda manufactured in the country. I don't like this because it has that punchy, synthetic finish to it.
HN: This is like melted, watery Rocket pops—it’s super flat. It’s all back-of-your-palate sugar.

Big Red

TASTING NOTES

CS: It is interesting when it's a red soda and they don't tell you what the flavor is, and you are inclined to think that it is a red fruit. I like the super obvious Texas branding of this bottle. It’s fucking pop. It’s got a real cotton candy, State Fair smell to it…it’s pretty bad. I get lots of bubble gum, like Big Chew or Bazooka Joe. I wouldn't be able to guess what fruit that is, it’s just sweet.
NS: True though—this is what you think of when someone says pop.
HN: I think that it tastes a lot like cream soda, actually.

TASTING NOTES

CS: This can is like a soda in a video game—like, it seems like it’s not a real product, like it just represents a generic idea of “soda.”
NS: It looks like Gushers. It tastes like what's inside of a Gusher! You could strip paint off a wall with that.
CS: Oh shit, it has a cornucopia of fruit: Strawberry, orange, grape. It smells like burnt paper. It’s awful.
HN: It smells like burning hair or, like, burning electrical wires. Is there a chemical reaction going on in the can?

Faygo Red Pop

VITALS
Type of soda: Red Pop
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Founded: 1907
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: The original flavors of Faygo were based upon a cake frosting recipe from Russian bakers Ben and Perry Feigenson, the founders of Feigenson Brothers Bottle Works.

TASTING NOTES

CS: Faygo is like the Ciroc of sodas—you drink it only because you are about that life. In this case, the Insane Clown Posse life. It’s not gross. It is really just like artificial strawberry candy.
NS: It’s the official drink of ICP. This drink has fueled many Gathering of the Juggalos. It’s not bad. This is the fucking party drink, for spraying on larger white women.
CS: It would be amazing to spray it over a crowd of Juggalos.

Blueberry Breese

TASTING NOTES

CS: It tastes like what I imagine when I think about a real old-fashioned soda. It has a slight citrus undertone of lemon and lime. It’s such a key move to not just go for one taste, that citrus makes it.
NS: It’s crisp and has good bubbles. This is great, give me some more. This is what I want out of a soda as an adult.
RS: It’s really subtle. More than anything else, the carbonation stands out. This is an incredible soda. I am swept away.
HN: I don’t like this one.
NS: Because you’ve still got a child’s tastes
HN: Yep, it’s not my fault I’m not old like all of you.

Jic Jac Raspberry Soda

VITALS
Type of soda: Raspberry
Hometown: St. Louis, MO
Founded: 1950
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: Available again for the first time since the 1970s

TASTING NOTES

CS: Whenever you see cane sugar, you assume it will be better. But somehow this still tastes really artificial. This has a flavor that really makes me think of 7Eleven Slurpees. You could imagine pouring Bacardi into it and sneaking into the movies.
NS: Tastes like going to the circus, but not the big top—only three-ring circuses. Yeah, it’s not that bad
RS: It’s not as sweet as the color would lead you to expect.
CS: It’s got really fine bubbles, which works here. I think everyone was pleasantly surprised.

Goody Yellow Pop

TASTING NOTES

CS: Kind of a cloudy yellow, but a disturbing one nonetheless. Smells like the Gatorade Gum that they used to sell at Sports Authority. It evokes vague memories of childhood candies you didn’t like.
NS: Fuck this! Fuck this!
HN: It’s like Laffy Taffy. The white mystery flavor one.
RS: This smell has no precursors for me.

Green River Original

TASTING NOTES

CS: It’s like a less sweet Sprite. I guess it really is the “original lemon lime soda.” I’d fuck with this. I would drink this with some Doritos.
NS: Color is too weird—it really does look like it could strip the world away.
RS: This really does look like it should be in a device and not a person.

The Pop Shoppe Lime Ricky

VITALS
Type of soda: Lime ricky
Hometown: London, ON
Founded: 1969
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: After 20 years of being out of production, Brian Alger, an entrepreneur, decided to restart the brand with all the original flavors he remembered from his childhood.

TASTING NOTES

CS: How did a Canadian soda sneak into this tasting? The rigor of this panel has been completely compromised, but I'm just going to let it ride because it’s pretty good. It’s not super sweet. It’s inoffensive. It’s like lemonade, but with limes. Is that what limeade is? That word always confused me.
NS: I’d have poutine with that.
HN: I think that I want them to be super sweet if they look like that, and so I am disappointed.

NuGrape

TASTING NOTES

CS: This one reminds me of Nerds. I don’t like the white froth ring that emerges in that glass, it puts me off. It even has sort of a soapy suds look that trails down the sides.
NS: That bottle reminds me of a bad tattoo shop logo.
HN: Would it be a good soda to drink with food, though?
RS: I don’t think so. This was a weak soda all around.

Black Bear Very Berry Blue Raspberry

VITALS
Type of soda: Blue raspberry
Hometown: St. Francis, WI
Founded: 1920
Type of sweetener: Corn syrup
Factoid: Louis Patmont originally founded Black Bear bottling in the early 1920s as a water bottling company. It quickly evolved into a soft drink bottling company.

TASTING NOTES

CS: The bottle makes you think that it is concentrated in flavor, because it is so small. Yes! It is mad good. Crispest of the blue sodas we’ve tasted. I think these brightly colored sodas triumph when they don't make you think of candy.
NS: Ultimately I wouldn't choose a berry soda.
CS: But this one has the crispness and mild sweetness that ironically makes it good enough to drink a normal-size bottle. There’s no denying the joys of holding a small bottle. Blue sodas are just not in my life experience, I guess. But I like this one
RS: It’s not a bear of a drink. It’s more of a bear cub.

Jackson Hole Huckleberry Soda

VITALS
Type of soda: Huckleberry
Hometown: Jackson, WY
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Tagline: "When it’s time to relax after a long day in the saddle, there’s nothin’ better than knocking back one of our old-time soda fountain favorites. Our flavors are as varied as the sun setting over our beautiful Grand Tetons and will bring a smile to your face!"

TASTING NOTES

CS: I like the branding, all the labels for their sodas evoke that Old West, frontier lifestyle. The youngsters on this one are awesome. These are all little bros who would get up to some hi-jinx in the mine, with their whooping coughs.
NS: They all look like pickpockets.
CS: Are you willing to trust that it is really huckleberry? They all look 8-years-old going on 45, from the wisdom and strains of the frontier. I like the bubbles, though. It is crisp.
HN: What is a huckleberry, anyway? I like this soda either way.
RS: I like it, too, but I don't know what it tastes like. Those kids would lie to your face. How many people do you think they saw die?

Dublin Retro Grape

TASTING NOTES

CS: Smells like grape Nerds. It’s got a little bit of citrus going on in the background, which I really like.
NS: This is terrific. Tastes like grape Nerds, too, but I fuck with grape Nerds.
HN: This is flat. It’s like Welch’s grape juice.
RS: It’s so shockingly flat that I’m not convinced something isn't wrong.

Rummy Grapefruit Soda

TASTING NOTES

CS: I think they did the right thing in dialing down the bitterness of grapefruit. The nose has a lot of grapefruit on it, though. Cloudiness gives the perception that it has real stuff even though it doesn’t.
NS: That’s great.
HN: If I didn’t know that it was grapefruit, I would think that it was lemon lime.
RS: You can tell there is grapefruit. This has one of the longest finishes ever. It is the opposite of palate cleansing. I love this soda.

Original Nehi Orange Soda

VITALS
Type of soda: Orange Soda
Hometown: Columbus, GA
Founded: 1924
Type of sweetener: Sugar
Factoid: A story surrounding the origins of the soda's name claims that Nehi came from Claud Hatcher overhearing a route salesman describing a competitor's bottle as "knee-high." And so, the name was born.

TASTING NOTES

CS: Smells like those Airborne vitamin tablets that you dissolve into water. Even Kel [from Keenan & Kel] wouldn’t fuck with this orange soda. It’s a little bit like a rotten orange. It’s passed its prime.
HN: It smells like Triaminic cough syrup. I hate this. It’s upsettingly bad.
RS: It tastes like varnish, like me licking my shop teacher.

Ale-8-One Ginger Soft Drink

VITALS
Type of soda: Ginger ale
Hometown: Winchester, KY
Founded: 1926
Type of sweetener: Sugar and/or corn sweetener
Factoid: Ale-8-One soft drink has been bottled in Winchester since 1926 and is the only soft drink invented in Kentucky that is still in existence.

TASTING NOTES

CS: I wish it had a spicier ginger flavor.
RS: It does smell like a ginger ale. It kind of rides out too long in your mouth. If you aren't going to have spice or interesting flavors, vacate the premises, asshole.

Dr. Enuf The Original Energy Booster

TASTING NOTES

CS: Again, smells like Airborne in water. Not truly carbonated, more like the effervescence that comes from a tablet.
NS: This is average.
HN: It’s kind of like Cel-Ray soda.
RS: I get something biscuity. It tastes like powdered soda and it does kinda taste like vitamins.
CS: Side note: I hate plastic capped glass bottles. What part of the game is that?

Apple Beer

TASTING NOTES

CS: It’s the perfect marriage of an apple juice and a carbonated drink. This is the one from the whole tasting so far that I could drink with most frequency.
RS: Tastes like apples, nice bubbles—almost like a beer head.

Ski Citrus Soda

TASTING NOTES

RS: It is like an adult Mountain Dew.
CS: Yeah, one that doesn’t shrink your testicles. Instead, you go water skiing with a babe if the bottle is to be believed.
NS: I like this. It’s actually fucking delicious.
CS: You can see bits of pulp floating in it. I suppose that is a positive?

Moxie

VITALS
Type of soda: Herbal
Hometown: Lowell, MA
Founded: 1884
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: The official soft drink of Maine, Moxie was originally patented as a medicine called "Moxie Nerve Food." Legend has it that Moxie is an aid to digestion and a cure-all for nervousness, insomnia, and exhaustion. Made with Gentian root.

TASTING NOTES

CS: This is a real American nostalgia brand. Back in the old days, it was marketed for its medicinal properties, which makes sense tasting it—it definitely has a herbal quality, but it’s subtle, not medicinal.
HN: It smells a lot like cough medicine. It would settle your stomach after a meal.
RS: This feels like it's never going to get out of my mouth.
CS: For me, this is the nonalcoholic equivalent of amaro. It even has gentian root, which is in lots of bitters. I’m pleasantly surprised by Moxie.

Boylan Bottling Co. Cane Cola

VITALS
Type of soda: Cane cola
Hometown: Teterboro, NJ
Founded: 1891
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: During Prohibition, Boylan sodas were sold in unused beer barrels and from the 1940s–1970s, their birch beer was mostly sold in kegs across New Jersey.

TASTING NOTES

CS: Boylan is like the most accessible “improved” soda on the market, you see it everywhere. It’s gotten to the point where it has such a distinct brand—mainstream, but not yet soiled with the associations of being ubiquitous or cheap. Boylan is to Coke as Potbelly is to McDonald's. You would be happy to have a fridge full of this stuff.
NS: It’s a progressive soda. It’s the type of thing they would have at Hill Country.
RS: The finish is really earthy.

TASTING NOTES

CS: This could be a nice stand in for a gin and tonic for someone who doesn’t drink. You get that bit of juniper, but its not very aggressive at all. It’s such a good carbonated water, though. Its bubbles are excellent. Definitely an adult soda.
NS: It was invented by a woman who was pregnant and couldn't drink. If you are an alcoholic pregnant broad, this is what you drink.

Double Cola

VITALS
Type of soda: Cola
Hometown: Chattanooga, TN
Founded: 1933
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: Double-Cola is sold at every single Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, nationwide. In 1933, the original Jumbo Cola was sold in a 12oz bottle, which at that time was double the size of other colas. The name was then changed to Double Cola.

TASTING NOTES

CS: I like the name, it sounds extreme, but not in the douchey way of new-school energy drinks. Ah, it’s not that good though. This is one of those sodas that you have to imagine only the people from the place where it’s made like it. Unless people have some sort of local pride for it, it really doesn’t need to exist.
RS: It also reminds me of R. Kelly’s Double Up, which is underrated. This is Sam’s Club soda. Just passable.

TASTING NOTES

CS: This has that awesome sound when you open and pour it that makes everyone around you instantly crave a refreshing soda. There is something candylike about it.
NS: It tastes a lot like Ribena, the blackcurrant juice from England. It tastes like a delicious Ribena.
RS: This is a really good soda. I would drink this. I have nothing else to say about this. I could drink a whole one of those. A closed minded group of little boys wouldn’t like it, but a group of progressive little boys could enjoy it.

OOgave Watermelon Cream

TASTING NOTES

CS: The flavor, watermelon cream, is not a flavor anyone has ever wanted. Peaches and cream, yes. But watermelon and cream is a not a good combo.
HN: I think that this soda is delicious and I would drink more if I didn’t know I was going to taste more sodas.
RS: It’s the color of a wine that my mother might drink. This tastes like butt, I hate this.

TASTING NOTES

CS: Some of these are sodas trying to be refined versions of the source material, but this just tastes like a worse Coke. It has too much coriander. Also, don’t put lemon in your cola—I would rather be the judge of that. I can add a lemon wedge.
NS: It smells like old Coke.
HN: It tastes like flat Coke with a lemon wedge.
RS: It’s okay. I can taste that there is agave in it. It does taste like flat Coke. I can taste the cloves and the coriander at the expense of the other flavors I think.

Brooklyn Soda Works Plum and Ginger

VITALS
Type of soda: Plum and ginger
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Founded: 2010
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: Every fruit juice is hand-squeezed and only local and seasonal fruits are used when possible. Sodas are usually sold directly from kegs and rarely bottled.

TASTING NOTES

CS: It’s slightly under-carbonated after traveling here, but you’ll usually find it made on the spot with a Soda Stream at restaurants and flea markets in NYC. The fruit flavor is excellent, you can really tell it’s all-natural sugars. Heavy ginger smell on the nose, but balanced on the palate. A soda having a real aroma also speaks to it being a handmade product. It doesn't immediately coat your mouth in sugar or make you thirsty. You also know you won’t crash an hour later.
NS: Good ginger flavor, but the plum is kinda thin to me.
HN: It’s surprisingly light in texture and body, whereas fresh fruit can sometimes be heavier. I like the color.

Rocket Fizz Limited Edition Snooki Wild Cherry Soda

TASTING NOTES

CS: It tastes like that cherry syrup on a snow cone. It tastes like long nights and bad decisions. But on the real…Snooki’s soda is not that bad!
Ed note: Everyone else's comments were not fit for print.

Lester's Fixin's Bacon Soda

TASTING NOTES

CS: It smells of BBQ potato chips. The color itself is upsetting. And Lester looks like he’s fixin to do awful things to your mother.
NS: It tastes like Monster Munch crisps from England. That is one of the foulest things I’ve ever tasted. I reckon if you drank that whole thing you would be in big trouble.

Zuberfizz Coco Fizz Chocolate Soda

VITALS
Type of soda: Chocolate soda
Hometown: Durango, CO
Founded: 2002
Type of sweetener: Cane sugar
Factoid: Each batch of Zuberfizz is handcrafted in small quantities with fresh Rocky Mountain water from the San Juans.

TASTING NOTES

CS: That is not what I expected. This smells exactly like a Tootsie Roll, but kind of woody too. It’s like a barrel-aged Tootsie Roll. I think this is an example of where it’s off-putting for the color to not match the flavor. If it’s chocolate, you want something darker; this looks like polluted water.
RS: Yes, it tastes like a grainy tootsie roll.

Cock ‘N Bull Ginger Beer

TASTING NOTES

CS: It tastes like fresh ginger. I appreciate that it really has bite. This is for people who have gotten to the point in their lives where they drink Negronis—a very refined soda, and not shy about it.
NS: This is a man’s drink; most of the others have been for children and nostalgic old folks.
RS: You just handed me this so that I could say cock out loud. I’m not mad though. It smells like real ginger. I like it, I’m happy.

Hosmer Mountain Sarsaparilla

TASTING NOTES

CS: A little on the earthy side. I like it. It has a round flavor rather than hitting any one of the obvious elements of the root beer flavor. It encompasses the idea of root beer very well. It’s a wallflower in the root beer community, but one you want to dance with.
NS: The type of person who eats mushrooms with all pasta would like this. You wouldn't publicly dance with it, but you would take it home.
RS: So much mist when you crack it open! Not an overly strong smell. This really rolls slowly through your mouth. It has a slow roll.

Dream Lode Golden Ginger Ale

TASTING NOTES

CS: It smells like the ginger that is in a Chinese medicine shop, like a dried ginger. It’s got an awful finish. Actually, it kind of tastes off. It does win the award for the most pause-worthy name, though. The text on the back takes it home: “Everyone wanted a taste of Frank’s elixir.”
NS: There is a very harsh citric finish.
RS: This couldn't possibly be how they want it to taste.

Is there any drink more American than soda?
These days, in the age of Big Gulp ubiquity, sugary drinks have gotten a bad rap, lumped together with cigarettes and Whoppers and all the other stuff that’s supposed to be killing us. But soda has a much more quaint and parochial history in this country than its current image would suggest.
Many old-school sodas, like Moxie, were oriented toward health and sold at pharmacies as nerve tonics and herbal remedies. In the earlier half of the 20th century, soda fountains at ice-cream parlors, department stores, and elsewhere were a social institution, providing a place for communities to gather and exchange ideas. And during Prohibition, scores of breweries stayed afloat by turning their attention to soft drinks, spawning a golden age of great American sodas.
These days, old brands that have survived—or been resurrected by nostalgic entrepreneurs—are irresistible examples of Americana, rife with goofy branding and small-town charm. Even the names people use for fizzy drinks—soda, pop, tonic—speak to their regionalism. Meanwhile, new-school sodamakers are pushing the tradition forward, tweaking recipes and seeking to provide an alternative to the homogeneity of the standard vending-machine lineup.
Long story short, we love soda and think it deserves to be celebrated. Over the past few months, our tasting panel has sampled well over 150 sodas from all across the country (and one that snuck in from Canada, cheeky bastard). Some were truly excellent—crisp and clean, with just the right kiss of pure cane-sugar sweetness. Others were unspeakably awful, tasting of everything from Robitussin to burnt hair and bacon. But what emerged over the course of the panel was one undeniable fact: Drinking soda is as fun as hell.
Here, we present the 50 regional sodas that we think every American ought to try before kicking the bucket, as well as our tasting notes on each. Let the sugar high commence.

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